10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Basking in this Island's Sun, April 21 2000
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Island in the Sun a Story of the 1950's
British colonialism on the decline and its effect on the inhabitants of a small West Indies paradise is the background for this tale of politics, forbidden love, murder, and redemption. As the sun sets on the british empire the people of this tiny island, both white and black, begin to prepare for free elections and impending independence. In essence the island is a microcosim, all the social and political issues of the time cook in the heat of the West Indian sun. This story is not without its fair share of soap oprah-ish melodrama, but it is extremely entertaining and offers the reader a social commentary on a way of life and a time that has forever passed.
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favorite books!, Oct 30 2011
By Brian A. Hill - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Island in the Sun a Story of the 1950's
I found myself picking through a bargain bin at a used book store in Broken Hill, Australia, when I came upon this book. I bought it for a dollar and read it on a long train ride across the outback. This is one of those books that I just identified with. The characters came alive in my mind, and I couldn't stop reading it. I had to know what would happen next, and I wished there was more to read when I was finished. I really feel like this book is a masterpiece of slow-moving suspense, kind of like Orwell's "Burmese Days." If the colonial time period and the exotic setting interest you, the characters become real. You are there in the story, sitting in the background, watching and listening. My absolute favorite part of this book, though, is sitting in the narrator's all-seeing perspective for the murder investigation, with references to Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment."